Is Glass a Liquid?

Stained glass is thicker at the bottom - so is it a liquid? Earth's mantle enables plate tectonics, so is it a liquid?
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Neural Implant Enables Paralyzed ALS Patient to Type Six Words per Minute

Typing six words per minute may not sound very impressive. But for paralyzed people typing via a brain-computer interface (BCI), it’s a new world record. To pull off this feat, two paralyzed people used prosthetics implanted in their brains to control computer cursors with unprecedented accuracy and speed. The experiment, reported today in Nature Medicine, was the latest from a team testing a neural system called BrainGate2.
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What It’s Like to Fly - And Stall - In the Icon A5 Plane

This amazing little aircraft is as fun on the water as it is in the air, and its spin-resistant design makes it safer during a stall.
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'Wiring diagrams' link lifestyle to brain function

Human Connectome Project finds surprising correlations between brain architecture and behavioural or demographic influences.
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Four Creatures That Glow

Fireflies, crustaceans, jellyfish -- lots of living things glow, and they do it for all kinds of reasons, some of which we haven’t even discovered yet.
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Where airplanes go to die: Walking around a 747 graveyard

I was close enough to stick my hand inside the jet engine, or sit on the giant landing gear.
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Something Strange Is Happening Inside Saturn

Unusual ripples in Saturn's rings are revealing the mysterious inner workings of the great gas giant.
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Nabokov on the Sins of Translation

Vladimir Nabokov explains the perils of translating, and the great Russian short story.
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The Coal Baron Who May Be Responsible for 29 Deaths Is Finally Facing Justice

At 9 a.m. on Oct. 1, former coal baron Donald Leon Blankenship will stand before a judge at the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse in Charleston, West Virginia, for what promises to be a lengthy, complex, and historic criminal trial.
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How Accurate Is "The Martian"? 9 Things The Movie Got Right And Wrong

"The Martian" is hitting cinemas right about now, and already it is being heralded as one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi films of all time. We’ve seen the movie, and we’ve got to say, it’s amazing how far we’ve come since "Armageddon" (shudder). NASA has been so impressed, they've been using the movie as a marketing campaign for their own, actual manned missions to Mars in the 2030s.
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Surgeons test possible stem cell cure for blindness

Surgeons test possible stem cell cure for blindness. Surgeons in London have used human embryonic stem cells in a pioneering attempt to cure blindness. Cells derived from a donated early embryo were implanted into the retina of a 60-year-old woman with age-related macular degeneration - the most common cause of blindness in the UK.
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Arsenic found in many U.S. red wines, but health risks depend on total diet

America’s top four wine-producing states — California, Washington, New York and Oregon — found all but one have arsenic levels that exceed what’s allowed in drinking water.
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Why We Should Land on Phobos Before We Land on Mars

Rather than an expensive Apollo 8-style flyby or an audacious out-the-gates landing, NASA is mulling landing on the rocky, tiny moon first.
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How to Cookie with Science

Chocolate chip cookies are nearly universally adored. People like them in all sorts of textures, sizes, and tastes. So how can you make your perfect cookie? Using science, of course. In preparation for National Homemade Cookies Day on October 1, here are some tips on how to experiment with ingredients to get cookie that is just right for you.
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Gardens: nature’s happy pill

Feeling blue? Get yourself a mood-changing gardenia, writes James Wong. This exotic houseplant has much more to offer than mere visual appeal. Its creamy-white petals house structures that generate sweetly scented compounds which not only fill a room with their rich, jasmine-like fragrance, but according to recent trials may also have a profound effect on your mood.
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Plastic-eating worms may offer solution to mounting waste

An ongoing study by Stanford engineers, in collaboration with researchers in China, shows that common mealworms can safely biodegrade various types of plastic.
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The future of cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and beyond

The digital currency has caused any number of headaches for law enforcement. Now entrepreneurs and academics are scrambling to build a better version.
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Replication, Re-Analysis, and Worm Wars

A number of you have asked for an episode on worm wars. Others of you will have literally no idea what worm wars is. This episode is for both groups. Worm wars are the topic of this week’s Healthcare Triage.
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Why are we the only human species still alive?

Once Earth was home to a host of human species, from Neanderthals to hobbits. But today only we survive.
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Why Jellyfish Float Like a Butterfly—And Sting Like a Bee | Deep Look

Jellyfish don’t have a heart, or blood, or even a brain. They’ve survived five mass extinctions. And you can find them in every ocean, from pole to pole. What’s their secret? Keeping it simple, but with a few dangerous tricks.
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Self-assembling material that grows and changes shape could lead to artificial arteries

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have developed a way of assembling organic molecules into complex tubular tissue-like structures without the use of moulds or techniques like 3D printing.
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Snapshots from Space History

UCL is the only UK host of a NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF). On top of this, it has a long tradition in astronomy, geology and planetary science.
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Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life

Earth-like planets orbiting close to small stars probably have magnetic fields that protect them from stellar radiation and help maintain surface conditions that could be conducive to life, according to research from astronomers at the University of Washington.
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Bringing to Light

After an unexpected and mind blowing discovery on the slopes of Mount Hood, we embark on an expedition deep under the Sandy Glacier to document the disappearing world and fleeting beauty of the largest glacier cave system in the lower 48 states.
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Rosetta's comet is actually a partnership that's lasted billions of years, study says

How did Rosetta's rubber-duck-shaped comet get its funky, two-lobed look?
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The mystery of the female orgasm

From the G-spot to multiple orgasms, female sexuality has presented many mysteries. But as Linda Geddes discovers, radical experiments are finally revealing some answers.
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What Will I Hear When My Ears Stop Working?

What is silence? To most of us, it is found in temporary absence of sound: the quiet nights of sleep in suburban neighborhoods; the demi-beat before a pianist pounds the ivories; and the pause one takes after receiving bad news. In our world, silence is also abstract. It is the hush that blankets a city devastated by disaster. But silence – true silence – is neither poetic nor dramatic. For those who can no longer hear, it is constant and formless.
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The hidden world that moves your luggage

As we wander through duty-free on the way to our planes, a vast network is ensuring our bags travel with us.
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'Big step forward' in new treatment for age-related macular degeneration, U.K. surgeons say

'Having got this far, we feel it will work. There has been a lot of research behind this and this is now looking like a route to treatment'
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Bacteria in ancient flea may be ancestor of the Black Death

About 20 million years ago a single flea became entombed in amber with tiny bacteria attached to it, providing what researchers believe may be the oldest evidence on Earth of a dreaded and historic killer – an ancient strain of the bubonic plague.
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Tropical Storm Joaquin to Track Near East Coast, Escalate Flood Threat

Tropical Storm Joaquin may converge with another slow-moving storm in the East to create a serious flooding situation into early next week.
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Scientists make self-healing rubber

The most annoying thing when you drive is a flat tire. Imagine while driving your tire goes flat, but you don’t need to repair/change it. A team of scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden, one of the largest polymer research facilities in Germany, have developed a new type of rubber that can heal itself after a tear or break.
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Sanctuary for ocean jewels

The waters around the Kermadec Islands to the north of New Zealand will become one of the largest ocean sanctuaries in the world, Prime Minister John Key announced.
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First optical rectenna -- combined rectifier and antenna -- converts light to DC current

Using nanometer-scale components, researchers have demonstrated the first optical rectenna, a device that combines the functions of an antenna and a rectifier diode to convert light directly into DC current.
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New Study Suggests Viruses Are Alive, And That They Share An Ancestor With Modern Cells

A detailed new study of the origins of viruses lends weight to the argument that they are living cells, and offers us a reliable method to turn back the clock and track their evolution.
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Deep-diving whales could hold answer for synthetic blood

The ultra-stable properties of the proteins that allow deep-diving whales to remain active while holding their breath for up to two hours could help Rice University biochemist John Olson and his colleagues finish a 20-year quest to create lifesaving synthetic blood for human trauma patients.
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Rare 'healthy' smokers' lungs explained

The mystery of why some people appear to have healthy lungs despite a lifetime of smoking has been explained by scientists.
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First UK patient receives stem cell treatment to cure loss of vision

Experimental transplant uses eye cells grown in a lab and if successful could be used to treat hundreds of thousands of macular degeneration sufferers in UK
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The Glider That’s Aiming to Fly Higher Than Any Plane Ever

The SR-71 Blackbird flew to 85,000 feet. The folks behind this glider want to beat it.
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Cessna's Defunct Jet Trainer Was A Dream Machine For Rich Wannabe Fighter Pilots

Twenty years ago, Cessna gave birth to a military jet trainer that had wealthy private pilots with fighter jock dreams licking their chops. Here’s the story of how Cessna ended up with their promising design and why they walked away from it.
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No one could see the colour blue until modern times

This isn’t another story about that dress, or at least, not really. It’s about the way that humans see the world, and how until we have a way to describe something, even something so fundamental as a colour, we may not even notice that it’s there. Until relatively recently in human history, “blue” didn’t exist.
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Why we can't look for life in the waters of Mars

Protecting alien sites from Earth contamination.
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Laika and Her Comrades: The Soviet Space Dogs Who Took Giant Leaps for Mankind

Fascinating article about Laika and the other dogs who followed her into space.
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NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.
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Meet the man who invents languages for a living

David J. Peterson has crafted languages for TV shows and films — even a whole language for a single giant, in Game of Thrones. For him, every language is a balance of the technical and the artistic.
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Ceres’ Secrets Revealed

NASA’s Dawn Mission has finally photographed the full world at full resolution. Come see it!
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Hurricane Marty Closes in on Western Mexico

Hurricane Marty was churning Monday in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexican resort town Acapulco, causing authorities to shutter schools and send 200,000 students home.
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Gravity waves missing in action in latest test

Careful timing measurements show no sign of changes in the light from pulsars.
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How to Invent a Language, From the Guy Who Made Dothraki

David J. Peterson has become one of the most recognizable and prolific conlangers; now, his new book sets out how you can be one too. By K. M. McFarland.
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How Our Lunar Understanding Has Changed Since Apollo

Caves and meteorite strikes and more! We've learned a lot since Apollo astronauts walked on the surface over 40 years ago.
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